Google Analytics Helpful Tip – Troubleshooting GIF Request
Troubleshooting and fixing issues within your web analytics platform can be a challenge to say the least especially if your tool-kit is missing the necessary items. This blog posting discusses some of the tools available to debug tracking issues as well as a mapping of the GIF request being sent over via Google Analytics.
In subsequent postings, I will put the typical request being sent by the other tools. Also, please note that while this only shows the request being sent by Google Analytics, the free tools that are listed below can be used to see what’s being fired off from Omniture SiteCatalyst, Coremetrics, WebTrends or any other analytics package out there.
Below are some of the many free available tools. Charles and Fiddler can be used regardless of the browser that you are using as they are not tied specifically to a browser (i.e. an add-on for that browser). The others are tied specifically to the browser they are listed with:
Firefox: HTTP Headers, Firebug, Charles, Fiddler, Web Analytics Solution Provider/Debugger (WASP)
Internet Explorer: Fiddler, Charles
Chrome: Charles, Fiddler
Safari: Charles, Fiddler
Once you have your tool of choice in place, you can then begin to debug the GIF request. Here is a typical GIF request sent by Google Analytics. Now that you know what each parameter passed means and its associated value, that will definitely help cut down in troubleshooting/debugging future issues.
| Variable | Explanation of Variable | Example |
|---|---|---|
| utmac | Account String. | utmac=UA-000000-1 |
| utmcc | Cookie values. | utmcc=__utma%3D117243.1695285.22%3B%2B __utmz%3D117945243.1202416366.21.10. utmcsr%3Db%7C utmccn%3D(referral)%7C utmcmd%3Dreferral%7C utmcct%3D%252Fissue%3B%2B |
| utmcn | Starts a new campaign session. | utmcn=1 |
| utmcr | Indicates a repeat campaign visit. | utmcr=1 |
| utmcs | Language encoding for the browser. | utmcs=UTF-8 |
| utmdt | Page title. This is URL-encoded. | utmdt=test_page |
| utme | Extensible Parameter. Value is encoded. Used for events and custom variables. | utme=1 |
| utmfl | Flash Version | utmfl=9.0 |
| utmhn | Host Name. This is URL encoded. | utmhn=domain.com |
| utmipc | Product Code. This is the SKU or product ID. | utmipc=12345xxx |
| utmipn | Product Name. | utmipn=hat |
| utmipr | Unit Price. | utmipr=19.95 |
| utmiqt | Quantity. | utmiqt=1 |
| utmiva | Variations on an item (i.e. S/M/L/XL) | utmiva=S |
| utmje | Indicates if browser is Java-enabled. | utmje=1 |
| utmn | Unique ID generated for each GIF request to prevent caching of the GIF image. | utmn=123456789 |
| utmp | Page request of the current page. | utmp=/category/Omniture |
| utmr | Referral, complete URL. | utmr=http://www.google.com/foobar |
| utmsc | Screen color depth | utmsc=8-bit |
| utmsr | Screen resolution | utmsr=640×480 |
| utmt | Indicates the type of request, which is one of: event, transaction, item, or custom variable. | utmt=event |
| utmtci | Billing City | utmtci=Spring%20Valley |
| utmtco | Billing Country | utmtco=United%20States |
| utmtid | Order ID, URL-encoded string. | utmtid=O123456 |
| utmtrg | Billing region. | utmtrg=Rockland%20County |
| utmtsp | Shipping cost. | utmtsp=3.00 |
| utmtst | Affiliation. | utmtst=web%20analytics%20central |
| utmtto | Total Price (unit * cost) | utmtto=22.95 |
| utmttx | Tax. | utmttx=2.16 |
| utmul | Browser language. | utmul=pt-br |
| utmwv | Tracking code version | utmwv=1 |
Written by:
Dorian D. Regester
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Why go trough all the trouble of a low level, technical debugger when you can use WASP, the Web Analytics Solution Profiler, to quickly and easily view Google Analytics requests (and 150 other tools) as you surf, and even crawl your site to see if each pages are tagged and working as expected?
Disclaimer: I initially developed WASP, now owned by iPerceptions.